A few weeks ago now my girlfriend and i popped across to London to see Waiting For Godot with Patrick Stewart, Ian Mckellen, Ronald Pickup and Simon Callow. It was a really good production and amazing to see those actors onstage, the theatre equivalent of seeing some massive band I suppose.
Anyway I thought just because I could I’d post my No. 1 Patrick Stewart moment on here, No. 2 would be his camply over-acted appearance in Excalibur!
Hello there!!
Welcome to our lovely new website, tis cool, no?
Hopefully it’s a lot more user friendly than our old website for you and us.
Keep an eye out, because we’re going to be able to give away lots of little bits and bobs for your approval on here!
Anyhoo enjoy!!
During my usual evening perusals through the internet I cam upon the Stitch Wars exhibition thats happening in a small gallery in Florida. It’s basically artists using knitting, cross-stitching and loads of other fabric based crafts to make Star Wars related pieces including this cute looking Jabba the Hutt.
Also amongst the various items was probably the coolest sticker I have ever seen and here it is.
How many stickers have you seen with Chewbacca dressed as Jesus? I think he really pulls the look off well. Anyway I just wanted to share this discovery which has completely raised the bar for me, when it comes to sticker anyway!!
The Coen Brother’s have made some of my most favouritest films ever Fargo, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing. Not forgetting possibly my number one film ever The Big Lebowski. Here’s the trailer for their new film ‘A Serious Man’ as trailers go it’s a mini-masterpiece, using tiny snippets from the film to build up a rhythm, literally! I’m muchos excited to see this!
A while back there was a program on BBC2 called Oz and James Drink To Britain.
It was quite fun to watch two middle-aged men driving about and getting drunk in a caravan. All in the name of discovering the drink that summed up Britain.
The only problem was that when it came to Wales it was basically totally ignored, used only to show an example of evil brewers making mass-market cheap “export” lagers. It was mightily frustrating because there are millions of awesome booze producers in Wales so I thought I’d list some good Welsh drink producers here.
Gwynt Y Ddraig Cider
When it comes down to it there aren’t many better summer drinks than cider. Probably the biggest welsh cider producer is Gwynt Y Ddraig the make all kinds of well tasty ciders, some with awards. All made less than 45 minutes away from Cowbridge. They have it in Wetherspoons, in Cardiff anyway, so it makes a better tastier change from the usual Magner’s/Bulmer’s stuff. They also make perry. I’m not into all that pear type stuff though!
Otley Brewery
The Otley Brewery is just down the road in Pontypridd, they make tasty beer! Occasionally they’ll have it on tap in our local pub just round the corner where it’s a pleasant change from the usual Brains. They also serve it in The Plough and Harrow one of the Vale’s best pubs. If you’re ever round the Vale on a proper hot sunny day find The Plough, get a pint of Otley O1 and sit in their huge garden. It’s proper good!
Penderyn Distillery
It’s not all beers, ciders and perrys in Wales you know? There’s also the mighty fine Penderyn Distillery producers of Welsh Whisky, Vodka, Cream Liqueur and would you believe it Gin! It’s all good stuff too, though I can’t comment on the Gin as it sends me bonkers. What higher praise can there be for the stuff than the Russian Football Supporters Association telling the fans to drink loads of the stuff to stave off swine flu while they’re over here? Their Five Vodka is awesome stuff too, but then again I’m a sucker for vodka.
Felinfoel
This beer is awesomely tasty, really really tasty! Felinfoel is made near Llanelli in a place called Felinfoel. If you’re ever in Cardiff I think the one place you can get it is at The Queen’s Vaults opposite the Millenium Stadium. It’s a good aley type of lagery beer. It has one major claim to fame, it was the first beer to ever come in cans. Due to the fact the brewery owner also owned a tin mine. There’s a load more stuff about it on their website.
Brains
Last but certainly by no means least is Brains. I’m from Cardiff so it was bound to be Brains related. I’ve grown up wandering round Cardiff city centre with the waft of this stuff brewing penetrating my nostrils since forever. I reckon this is the perfect balance of all Brains beers. Not as fizzy and cataclysmically hangover inducing as their 45 lager, and nowhere near as heavy and filling as straight up SA, Bitter or Dark. It’s a proper Cardiff pint.
There you have it, proof that we Welsh know how to make booze as well as drink it! There’s about a bazillion other welsh breweries to check out, but these are the five I know and are pretty easy to come by. Oz and James missed out a hefty chunk methinks!!
As Taid (my grandfather) used to say “I’r achos ddirwestol”
I’ve just finished reading Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know the autobiography of Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
I know it sounds completely cliched and trite, but it was really inspiring.
He’s achieved loads, the majority of which seems to have be done in the latter half of his life against a lot of adversity. Running 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days 16 weeks after a heart attack and operation is pretty stunning I think.
It’s amazing to read about someone doing what they love not for fame or fortune, which seems to be the main motivation for most now, but for the sheer joy and satisfaction at taking on such immense challenges.
I learnt a lot about what it is for someone to not give up. Despite failure, rejections and age he always seems to pick himself up move onto the next thing even if it means putting his body and life on the line.
I think this part of the book pretty much sums it up, from his friend and adventuring partner Dr Mike Stroud:
“Whereas most people look at very big challenges, whatever the field or their walk of life, and start from the position ‘I can’t', Ran[ulph Fiennes] and I make a simple word substitution and say ‘Why can’t I?’”
It’s well worth the read, especially if you enjoy graphic descriptions of abscesses being lanced and how people poo up Everest!
If there’s anything good to be said about the whole Rock Band/Guitar Hero thingummy it’s that it produced this trailer, absolutely immense!!
Last week we travelled to Poland for the Jarocin Festival. It was a cool festival, small but perfectly formed you might say!
We had the night off before the festival to sample the delights of the nearest big town Poznan. The old town had an enormous cobbled square which had some public art very different from what we get in Cardiff.
After dinner we found a place called The Dragon Bar it was pretty sweet, muchos cheap vodka and lager was drunk. All soundtracked by a jazz-jamming session happening in the corner.
Poznan was a proper nice, friendly, buzzing place.
Next day, slightly worse for wear we headed to Jarocin for the festival. It was the first festival I’ve ever been to that had a creche for children who later all came on stage and sang with the headline act. Maybe Faith No More could do something similar at Reading this year?
Our set was preceded by the mother of all thunderstorms, I mean it was apocalyptic drowning out even the PA! The set went pretty well and was lent a considerably more epic atmosphere by the lightning bolts across the horizon.
I saw this animated short a while back. It’s by a guy called Chris Landreth from Canada and won an Oscar. I think it’s pretty cool, it straddles somewhere between animated short and documentary.
It’s about another Canadian painter sculptor called Ryan Larkin who made a big impression in the 60s with his animations but later fell into drug abuse and homelessness. He died of lung cancer in 2007.
It’s pretty powerful seeing people remain literally destroyed, deconstructed and unravelled by events in their lives.
Here’s an interview with Ryan Larkin after the film Ryan was released and won an Oscar.
It’s been 40 years since people had a stroll on the moon so I thought I’d commemorate that by posting one of my favourite moon related pictures. It’s by William Blake, I like how eerily calm it seems.
